PEOPLE
Woman Foregoes Pads and Tampons to Free-Bleed During Her Period. Here's How She Prepares Her Home for Her Monthly Cycle (Exclusive)
By Sara Belcher Published on April 30, 2026 10:57AM EDT
One woman is showing the internet how she prepares her home for her menstrual cycle.
Zoey Butler, a massage therapist and “body whisperer” from Kiama, Australia, shared a video on Instagram Reels showcasing all of the prep work she does around her house before her period starts so that she can free bleed without worrying about staining any of her furniture.
“I think in my upbringing growing up, most women were actually really not taught that much. It's quite a secretive conversation,” Butler tells PEOPLE of early conversations around her period. “For some mothers, they're really uncomfortable having these conversations about what's so natural in the body… There's no real education around hormones, the actual cycle, which has four stages, and what's happening to your body and how to best support it.”
She shares that she began taking birth control pills at just 15 “for my skin,” and would often skip her periods when she could “without any education around the implications of heath.”
It wasn't until Butler was in her 20s that she decided she wanted to work on “healing the relationship, specifically to my womb.” As a result, she found that free bleeding — or menstruating without the use of traditional sanitary products to catch the flow — benefited her body the most.
“I'm privileged,” Butler acknowledges. “I have created a life where I can just kind of go all into this.”
Now, Butler lives her life around her cycle. After spending some time tracking the four phases of her menstrual cycle (menstruation, follicular, ovulation and luteal), she started carving out time so she could be home during her period, allowing herself the flexibility to rest and bleed freely at home.
In her Instagram Reel, she outlined the products she sets up around her home to prepare for her cycle. This includes red waterproof sheets and duvet covers, as well as red waterproof blankets on her couch and work chairs, making it so she can freely move from room to room.
“I would say first step was to find something that you resonate with to bleed on,” she says for those who are also curious about free bleeding and wondering how to prepare their homes. “It doesn't even need to be waterproof. It could be a towel folded in a few different layers. But finding something that you feel comfortable bleeding on.”
From there, she recommends confronting the parts that make an individual uncomfortable with their period blood. She admits it wasn't an overnight change for her, and starting slow to ensure one feels comfortable is necessary.
“Even just starting with one day, even just starting with one hour, even just starting with a couple of hours — it's not something that you have to feel like you have to go from zero to three or four days at home,” she says. “Make a little ritual out of it. So wherever you're gonna bleed.. really honor that and don't distract yourself. Don't get on the phone — actually notice what happens in your body when you do that.”
